Lingering Remnants Behind the Door

Door.

Behind every door lay a cruel story.

Every door was akin to nurturing a desperate, tragic tale. Take Men Nan from the Third Ward, for instance—Behind the Door was a world formed from the pain he had endured since childhood.

"There's actually a door here?"

"That can't be possible, can it? This is the Western Outskirts of Hanjiang City. If there were a door here, how could the Ghost Story Association have failed to notice it?"

Zhang Ze stared at the door in the painting, unable to make sense of it no matter how much he thought.

No matter what.

A scarlet, eerie door had appeared in the painting. Zhang Ze tried to push it open, only to find that behind the painting was not a wall, but another space he could enter.

The world Behind the Door was entirely controlled by the door's owner.

Zhang Ze entered of his own accord.

He was going all in. If he did not win, he would die.

The world Behind the Door.

After Zhang Ze entered, the scene before him shifted into something resembling the hollow of an old banyan tree. The air was filled with murky, dark-red gelatinous matter that permeated this world, constantly refracting strange light like the Tyndall effect.

Oppressive and enclosed.

That was Zhang Ze's first impression.

After standing still for a while to adjust, Zhang Ze gradually got used to it and examined the place where he was.

It looked so familiar.

It was a bit like... Boonie Bears?

"Isn't this the tree hollow those two damn bears call home?"

"So Bear Ridge is behind this door?"

The world Behind the Door could take on any form.

Zhang Ze had prepared himself mentally. Even if a ghost had appeared the moment he entered, he would not have been surprised.

But finding himself in Bear Ridge was something he truly had not expected.

The tree hollow was spacious enough to hold two bears. In the cartoon, the beds where the two bears slept had wooden bases on one side and stone bases on the other, and those very two beds stood before Zhang Ze now.

Besides the two beds, there were several jars of honey inside the tree hollow.

Zhang Ze cautiously approached the honey jars.

A pungent stench of blood wafted from them. Zhang Ze's stomach churned, and he did not even dare open a jar.

Could there really be honey inside?

What a joke.

After scanning his surroundings, Zhang Ze saw neither Bear nor Little Zhou.

The silence around him was terrifying.

As for the area outside, Zhang Ze did not dare venture too far. If he left the door for too long and could not find his way back, he might become lost in the world Behind the Door.

About ten minutes passed.

A chaotic series of footsteps suddenly came from outside the tree hollow.

"Dad, the door has opened again."

"Hurry up, or Mom will be in danger."

"How could that be? The door is opening far too often. It was never this frequent before."

Zhang Ze listened.

The voices sounded somewhat familiar.

Could that be... Little Zhou?

Besides Little Zhou, there were other voices. Out of caution, Zhang Ze did not reveal himself immediately. Instead, he hid behind the beds and silently watched the people entering the tree hollow.

Once he saw that it really was Little Zhou.

Zhang Ze finally relaxed.

But to his surprise.

There was another familiar face besides Little Zhou.

Old Zhou.

Father and son entered the tree hollow one after the other. Besides the two of them, there were several others carrying various weapons.

Calling them weapons was generous. They were little more than sharpened branches and stones, things that could be found anywhere in the forest.

"Hm?"

"Why is no one here?"

"That's impossible. The door opened just now. An outsider must have come in."

"This is bad. If they enter the forest and run into that woman, everything will be over. We have to find them quickly."

Seeing that there was nothing unusual about the group.

Zhang Ze stepped out from behind his cover.

Upon seeing Zhang Ze, Old Zhou's expression eased first, as though he had confirmed that the person who entered was not his wife. But then his face changed, as if he had suddenly realized something.

That painting was kept in his home.

Little Zhou had entered just moments ago.

How had a stranger like Zhang Ze gotten in?

Just as he was about to speak.

Several distinct crow calls suddenly rang out from outside the tree hollow.

"Caw! Caw!"

"Caw! Caw!"

Several Crows appeared out of thin air outside the tree hollow. One Crow seized a middle-aged woman beside Old Zhou, while the other Crows all pounced on her as if they had locked onto a target.

The middle-aged woman panicked and frantically swatted at the Crows, but it was useless.

The Crows forcibly dragged the woman out of the tree hollow.

No one dared make even the slightest sound, afraid of drawing the Crows' attention. Old Zhou gathered the remaining people and had them all retreat to the deepest part of the tree hollow, holding their breath in silence.

"Crunch, crunch..."

A scalp-numbing sound of tearing and chewing.

A few minutes later.

Zhang Ze looked toward where the woman had been dragged away.

All the Crows had flown off. Only a blood-drenched corpse remained, its internal organs completely pecked clean, its body covered in wounds, its death too horrible to behold.

Several more minutes passed.

Only after confirming that the Crows had truly left.

Did anyone dare speak.

"It's over. Just like before, whenever someone enters Behind the Door, someone dies."

"Sigh, we're done for now."

The speaker was a young-looking man, seemingly not long out of university. Yet he wore luxury brands from head to toe, clearly marking him as someone wealthy.

Zhang Ze was confused.

"How did you end up here?"

He could not understand it. This was the world Behind the Door. It was understandable for Little Zhou to be here, but why were there other living people? There was even Old Zhou, who had long since died. By rights, living people should not exist in the world Behind the Door.

"Fine. Before you ask me that question, I have one to ask you as well."

"Go ahead."

"How did we end up here?"

Zhang Ze:?

"Is something wrong with your brain? Repeating my question doesn't make it a new question."

Old Zhou shook his head. "I'm serious. Based on what Little Zhou told me, I'm already dead in reality."

"But for some reason, I'm still trapped in this place."

"And I can no longer remember when or how I entered this place. Little Zhou told me some things, and I could barely recall them, but I can't retain those memories for long."

"This man is Li Yang. He has been here longer than I have. He probably told me about himself before, but I can no longer remember it."

Zhang Ze looked at the young man.

Li Yang nodded. "Like Old Zhou, I can't remember things from before either."

"After Little Zhou came in, he told me that Old Zhou was already dead in reality. I guessed that I should be dead in reality too."

"As for why I'm trapped here... I don't know either."

Zhang Ze fell silent.

Old Zhou could not remember his past and had lost many memories. It seemed that he remained in the World in the Painting in the form of a Lingering Remnant.

This was not without precedent.

After Chen Ge entered Peaceful Apartment, he could also obtain the Lingering Remnants of Peaceful Apartment's victims. Lingering Remnants were an extremely low-level kind of ghost. They lacked the ability to kill and found it difficult even to affect reality. At most, they could only frighten people.

As for Little Zhou...

Little Zhou still remembered things from reality.

That meant Little Zhou was still alive.